THE KING’S BUSINESS
438
A MISSION report tells the story of ■^■a Japanese convert, Mr. Nakashima. When he began his Christian life he had failed for several thousand yen. The courts had legally absolved him from pay ing this amount, but he considered it his Christian duty to repay what he owed and has at present but 300 yen to finish the account. This splendid example has given him a reputation for honesty which has spread far and wide, so that he is now much in demand in the settlement of all kinds of disputes. He has a Sunday school in small rented quarters. Recently eight persons were baptized iij this place—all of them led to the truth by Mr. Nakashima. The group has in turn started four preach ing places, giving their Sundays to evan gelistic work. The last news from Kaifu states that Mr. Nakashima, who is engaged in the manufacture of hosiery and who has now eight knitting machines, is soon to have twenty in his charge, the proceeds of three of which he proposes to give to the Lord’s work .—Record of Christian Work. A missionary, writing of woman’s status in China, says : “I remember when fleeing with refugees during a time of rebellion in the North, we crossed a temporary bridge and one small-footed girl of 14 or 15 fell into the water. Having on wadded clothing she floated for a time. The father, instead of jumping in to save her, shouted aloud that any one saving her might have her. A gallant came forward and wpn the prize. The crowd had only congratula tions for the winner, no sympathy for the one who was saved.” The Japan Evangelist reports in Tokyo “happenings in the past month very much out of thé ordinary.” Among these are early morning prayer meetings with an attendance approaching 800; tent meet ings with an attendance of 2 0 0 0 ; numerous street meetings where the most dignified and learned scholars preach to the pass ing throngs ; and all the leading daily papers of Tokyo are taking the Christian message to their millions of readers daily.
SOUTH AFRICA.—News has been received of the death'of Dr. Andrew Mur ray, president of the South African Mis sion, a minister of the Dutch church and author of many well-known devotional books. Dr. Murray was born in South Africa and died at the age of 88 . Thous ands of Christians all over the .world are indebted to him for his spiritual messages. INDIANS OF GUATEMALA.—There are in the Republic of Guatemala between 1,200,000 and 1,700,000 individuals of pure Inllian blood. The proportion that can be reached directly with the gospel by the Spanish-speaking evangelist will perhaps be 20 per cent. The Catholic church has a nominal hold over the majority of the Indians. But much more deeply seated than Catholicism, is the ancient pagan reli gion, which in spite of the opposition of the priests, has survived until the present day. This is a primitive sort of sun wor ship having altars on high hills and vol canoes. The prayers of the witch doctors are supposed to be especially effective 5 in curing the sick and bringing evil upon the enemy. IND IA—The Sholapur church of about 600 members has a native pastor who preaches and talks so the children can understand him. They enjoy sitting on the hard stone floor listening to his Sunday- afternoon sermons. It is a strong, virile religion that he preaches but one day it surprised even him to hear the boys and girls, some of them not more than 13 years old, arise in weekly prayer meeting and offer sentence prayers. They have done it frequently since and they do it very natur ally and reverently, too. Li Yuan Hung, president of China, has just given $5000 to the Canton Hospital, in acknowledgement of the fact that this was the first agency to bring China the practice, teaching and publication of West ern Medicine. This hospital is now eighty years old and has 300 beds, largely for charity patients.
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